In Search Of Debt Deal, Obama Walks A Narrow Path

President Barack Obama's effort at finding a way to get a debt deal done is made difficult by the ideological and political imperatives of both Democrats and Republicans.

President Barack Obama's effort at finding a way to get a debt deal...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will go to Capitol Hill this week to try to salvage a big deficit-reduction deal, battling not only Republican resistance but also complaints from Democrats that he mishandled his last attempt.

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The president's outreach to rank-and-file lawmakers, like the discontent of liberal Democrats, is the result of Republicans' refusal to accept any additional tax increases to avert the automatic spending cuts that are beginning to affect the government and the economy. It could meet the same failure as Obama's earlier bids to work privately through congressional leaders and then to apply public pressure.

Hopes now rest on finding a narrow path through the ideological and political imperatives of both parties. White House aides have not ruled out some money-saving structural reforms to Medicare that Republicans favor, notably an idea promoted by the House majority leader, Eric Cantor, to combine the program's doctor and hospital components with a single deductible for beneficiaries. Using savings from entitlement shifts like that to replace sequestration, as the automatic cuts are called, would meet Republicans' demands not to use tax increases for that purpose.

At the same time, some Republican senators and aides, publicly and privately, have expressed openness to accepting revenue increases as part of a loophole-closing overhaul of the tax code. Rolling together budget and tax agreements along those lines would allow Obama to complete the “grand bargain” that he has sought to tackle the nation's long-term budget imbalances as the baby boom generation retires.

He plans to meet separately this week with Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans, House Democrats and House Republicans. White House officials said the consideration of budget plans by the House and Senate in coming weeks would provide a natural forum to explore what deal might be possible this year.

“Hopefully there's an opportunity to work things out through regular order in the House and Senate,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to Obama. “How likely is that? I can't say very likely — there are strong structural forces in the Republican Party working against it. But if you try and fail you still have an opportunity to build bonds of trust that could be helpful on other issues.”